In 1917, as World War I raged on, people across England became transfixed by a headline of a very different sort. Two young girls from Cottingley, Yorkshire, had captured fairies on film. But was it concrete proof of the supernatural or merely a hoax? Claire Wittman’s play The Curious Case of the Cottingley Fairies feels an apt choice of subject matter for our era of AI and deepfakes. In the early 20th century, photography was still a relatively new form of technology, and tricks like double exposure fooled even some of the most learned skeptics. Today, on our new frontier of artificially manipulated images, it’s harder than ever to believe the evidence of our own eyes. Mostly inspired by true events, The Curious Case begins not during World War I but in 1966, when a reporter tracks down the woman who took those infamous photos and asks for her side of the story. She’s hoping to learn the truth, but she soon finds that the concept of “truth” may not always be a matter of black and white. From there, the narrative jumps back and forth between the grown-up Lillian “Lilli” Barnes’s cozy home and her younger counterpart’s teenage days in Cottingley. In the hands of director Hannah Ruth Blackwell, it’s a spellbinding 90 minutes, and Wittman’s witty, swift-flowing script tells the story with a light touch while hinting at deeper themes. Marina Clark as Lilli in ‘The Curious Case of the Cottingley Fairies.’ Photo by Heather Regan. NOVA Nightsky Theater performs in the basement of Falls Church Presbyterian Church, making excellent use of its snug space in large part thanks to set and props designer Steph Blackwell. While indoor scenes take place upstage, the lower half of the stage transforms into a bucolic English glen, blanketed with moss. The step up onto the stage is disguised as a tree stump and a log, and two gnarled trees flank the stage. There’s even a ladybug clinging to one of the trees’ bark. Mushrooms, wildflowers, and hanging wisteria complete the illusion. Within the home, details like a dollhouse and family photos on the walls add homey touches. The actors, largely very well-cast, stay busy all evening, whether playing members of Lillian’s family or a variety of media personalities, intellectuals, villagers, and, yes, fairies. Ensemble member Mickey Butler gives a memorable turn in the roles of a laconic vicar, a stately fairy king, and Lilli’s loving father, with strong physicality throughout. The older Lillian (Mary Fettes) has seen much and lived through tragedies both personal and international, but she comes across as surprisingly cheerful and down to earth — not at all the sort you’d peg to be wrapped up in fairy business. It makes her a compelling narrator indeed. Young Lilli (Marina Clark), on the other hand, is very much the moody, disaffected teenager. An aspiring nature photographer following in her father’s footsteps, she’s none too keen about having her nine-year-old cousin Mabel tag along with her. Still, both of their fathers are off fighting in World War I, and it makes sense for the two girls and their mothers to move in together for the time being. Clark captures the complexity of Lilli’s state of mind during this turbulent time in her life: in some ways, she’s growing up too fast, and in others, she is so clearly still a little girl. Her expressive face reflects Lilli’s unease as the fairy story snowballs into something much bigger than she could have imagined. TOP: Charlotte Buckhold, Pilar Bruyere, and Suzie Carmack as fairies, Olivia Roland as Mabel, and Marina Clark as Lilli; ABOVE: Isha Raj-Silverman as Madame Spinoza, in ‘The Curious Case of the Cottingley Fairies.’ Photos by Heather Regan. Olivia Roland shines as the fanciful Mabel. (Two young actors share this role: Roland on October 2, 4, 8, 10, and 16, and Olivia Wolfe on October 3, 9, 11, and 13.) While a precocious character like Mabel could easily become grating, Roland makes her so charming and her wish to be loved so palpable that she’s always delightful to watch. Her accent work and diction are exceptionally strong for such a young performer. Unlike Lilli, Mabel loves the spotlight, but both girls find something much more tangible than magic and much more permanent than media attention: a powerful sisterly bond.  Speaking of sisters, the girls’ mothers create excellent counterparts to their daughters. Both are perfectly cast. Mabel’s mother, Emma, is a true believer in magic, and Alexandra Ade plays her with lightness and sincerity. Her sister Helen, Lilli’s mother, is much more no-nonsense, often comically so. (When told by a medium that “spectral secretions” surround her home, she protests, “I keep a clean house!”) Kaye Buell skillfully portrays both her deep love for daughter and her skepticism; she may not believe in fairies, but she believes in Lilli. Once Emma shows her niece’s photos to the Theosophical Society, the girls become overnight celebrities as the press flocks to their rural home. These montages are amusingly directed by Blackwell. Famous intellectuals give their soundbites on the case by popping their heads out around the corner, and a Kodak executive sent to verify the photographs represents the USA with a cowboy hat and a twangy accent.  The most entertaining scenes of the show are those featuring the biggest celebrity to fall under the Cottingley Fairies’ spell: Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle makes his grand entrance chatting on the phone with none other than Harry Houdini. Tom Flatt is positively marvelous in the role, embodying British wit and charm while also hilariously conveying the esteemed author’s gullibility. It’s a scene-stealing performance with echoes of the great Sir Simon Russell Beale. As both Mabel’s friend Zara and a fraudulent hack of a medium called Madame Spinoza, Isha Raj-Silverman establishes a strong sense of character. Her wide-eyed, dramatic delivery makes Spinoza particularly entertaining, especially when delivering strange mixed metaphors like “the breath of his brain.” On the skeptics’ side, Frankie Canfield, an American journalist played with brisk-mannered pluck by Julia Recko, at first seems mercilessly bent on exposing a hoax. It soon becomes clear that she’s actually sympathetic to the girls and wants to prevent them from being further exploited.  Part of the beauty of this play is that there are no real villains here. This is not like one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories where a villainous fraudster gets their comeuppance — even the phony Madame Spinoza is too daffy to be any real threat. Wittman’s play suggests the fairies were a much-needed escape from living through a World War, Mabel’s loneliness and homesickness, and both girls’ longing for their absent fathers. Rather than canny manipulators, we see two children processing trauma as so many children do: through imagination.  The other great beauty of this show is that we get to experience some of that land of childish imagination for ourselves. We do, in fact, get to see fairies onstage. A well-synchronized ensemble of the fair folk performs several graceful dances choreographed by Hannah Ruth Blackwell, all clad in stunning costumes just like you’d see in a storybook — one autumnal, one wintry, and several more in dreamy pastel shades. (Kudos to costume designer Carole Pappas for choosing fairy attire calibrated to make our inner children squeal.)  In a striking piece of technical wizardry by Jon Roberts, the fairies dance live onstage while we see them projected against a forest background on a video screen. It is rare for photography to play a key role in a play’s tech elements, but here, photographer Heather Regan knocks it out of the park as she recreates the famous historical fairy photos with impeccable attention to detail. (She even took two sets of the photos to incorporate both Mabels.) These photos are also projected on the screen for the audience to examine, and being able to actually see the photos everyone is talking about greatly enhances the play-viewing experience.  Sound design (Hannah Ruth Blackwell) and lighting (Marty Kelly) are both well-calibrated to the intimate space but truly stand out in a seance sequence, complete with eerie ambient humming and wash of purple lights.  Though not all characters’ accents are equally convincing, dialects do solid work at establishing a sense of place and class under the leadership of dialect coach Noor Krajah. The entire production makes for a fascinating exploration of truth, imagination, belief, and the things that bring us together. The Curious Case of the Cottingley Fairies asks us, is the opposite of truth always falsehood? Or is there a third option, something that may not be factually verifiable but still holds meaning? The real case of the Cottingley Fairies is cemented in history as one of the most famous hoaxes of all time. Still, this play is only mostly based on true events. The real girls behind that camera lens were named Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths. It is entirely possible that in their own world, Lillian Barnes and Mabel Hallam really did see a fairy. Running Time: 90 minutes, with no intermission. The Curious Case of the Cottingley Fairies continues October 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, and 17, 2026, presented by NOVA Nightsky Theater Company, performing at Falls Church Presbyterian Church, 225 E Broad St, Falls Church, VA. Tickets ($28) are available online, Thursday, October 8 is a special pay-what-you-can performance.  The playbill is online here. ...read more read less